State Department hands Mitt Romney an issue

Thanks, Hillary! Your State Department has all but admitted it was asleep at the switch on 9/11 by trying to hide evidence of its failure to take seriously the obvious threat to overseas American facilities on the anniversary of 9/11. If the cover-up is worse than the crime, then the cover-up is also worse than the incompetence.

Jeryl Bier of the blog Speak with Authority uncovered (so to speak) the cover-up. It goes back to 9/6 when the State Department Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), part of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security under the U.S. Department of State., issue published a memo on its website reading:

OSAC currently has no credible information to suggest that al-Qa'ida or any other terrorist group is plotting any kind of attack overseas to coincide with the upcoming anniversary of September 11. However, constituents often have concerns around important dates, holidays, and major events, Often times, these concerns are the result of increased media attention to the issue, rather than credible evidence of a terrorist plot.

Here is an image of the page via Google Cache:

Now here is the current version of the page, as og 9/14:

To me, this looks like a serious cover-up of the failure to take seriously the threat, even dismissing concerns as merely in response to media attention. In the wake of Ambassador Stevens' assassination, it makes Hillary's State Department look awfully bad. It's the same sort of nonchalance that President Obama displayed by skipping his daily intelligence briefings leading up to 9/11.

Bier notes that a more innocent explanation is possible but unlikely:

The only other explanation for its disappearance is that the memo has been placed behind the subscriber wall of the website. Clicking on the link for "Terrorism and Important Dates"in the cached version of the reports page simply brings up the logon page for subscribers. However, this scenario seems unlikely because the memo is no longer listed in a publicly accessible menu as it was on Thursday and all the preceding days since its publication on the 6th, so unless users already had the original link to the memo, they would not even know of its existence.

I have emailed the OSAC for an explanation of the missing memo. Given the retractions and deletions that have already marked this whole series of events, the admittedly conspiracy-theory-sounding explanation seems the most persuasive. Until I receive a reply or the State Department issues a public statement, this latest disappearance will maintain an understandably sinister air about it.

Mitt Romney should be publicly asking why the State Department removed the memo, along with reminding the public that the Obama administration's negligence resulted in a victory for the terrorists and a humiliation for America.

Update: Jeryl Bier has done more excellent work, and noted that in 2011, The State Department issued a travel alert for 9/11. Which raises the question of why 2012 was different.

Thanks, Hillary! Your State Department has all but admitted it was asleep at the switch on 9/11 by trying to hide evidence of its failure to take seriously the obvious threat to overseas American facilities on the anniversary of 9/11. If the cover-up is worse than the crime, then the cover-up is also worse than the incompetence.

Jeryl Bier of the blog Speak with Authority uncovered (so to speak) the cover-up. It goes back to 9/6 when the State Department Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), part of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security under the U.S. Department of State., issue published a memo on its website reading:

OSAC currently has no credible information to suggest that al-Qa'ida or any other terrorist group is plotting any kind of attack overseas to coincide with the upcoming anniversary of September 11. However, constituents often have concerns around important dates, holidays, and major events, Often times, these concerns are the result of increased media attention to the issue, rather than credible evidence of a terrorist plot.

Here is an image of the page via Google Cache:

Now here is the current version of the page, as og 9/14:

To me, this looks like a serious cover-up of the failure to take seriously the threat, even dismissing concerns as merely in response to media attention. In the wake of Ambassador Stevens' assassination, it makes Hillary's State Department look awfully bad. It's the same sort of nonchalance that President Obama displayed by skipping his daily intelligence briefings leading up to 9/11.

Bier notes that a more innocent explanation is possible but unlikely:

The only other explanation for its disappearance is that the memo has been placed behind the subscriber wall of the website. Clicking on the link for "Terrorism and Important Dates"in the cached version of the reports page simply brings up the logon page for subscribers. However, this scenario seems unlikely because the memo is no longer listed in a publicly accessible menu as it was on Thursday and all the preceding days since its publication on the 6th, so unless users already had the original link to the memo, they would not even know of its existence.

I have emailed the OSAC for an explanation of the missing memo. Given the retractions and deletions that have already marked this whole series of events, the admittedly conspiracy-theory-sounding explanation seems the most persuasive. Until I receive a reply or the State Department issues a public statement, this latest disappearance will maintain an understandably sinister air about it.

Mitt Romney should be publicly asking why the State Department removed the memo, along with reminding the public that the Obama administration's negligence resulted in a victory for the terrorists and a humiliation for America.

Update: Jeryl Bier has done more excellent work, and noted that in 2011, The State Department issued a travel alert for 9/11. Which raises the question of why 2012 was different.